Why Mike Gansey’s sound process in selecting Labaron Philon Jr. bodes well for Sixers’ future
The Sixers did what a team in their position should be doing. They had an opportunity to draft a player they think will someday belong in a championship caliber rotation, and took advantage of it.
At the broadest, most general philosophical level, Mike Gansey aced his first test as Sixers president on Tuesday night. He looked at his draft board, saw a player he’d graded as the best talent by a significant margin, and then he selected that player. The process was sound.
As insignificant as it may seem, plenty of front offices mess it up. They prioritize things like roster construction or positional fit and they allow motivated reasoning to cloud the reality that all of the perfect players are long gone by the 22nd overall pick in the NBA draft. You must defy the odds just to select a player who ends up deserving a spot in a playoff rotation, let alone one who can make a decisive impact at a position of need. In Labaron Philon Jr., a sophomore guard from Alabama, the Sixers saw a talent so obvious that they didn’t feel like there was a choice to make.
“He’s someone that fell into our lap, so to speak,” Gansey said.
» READ MORE: The Sixers ‘couldn’t pass up’ Labaron Philon Jr. after he ‘fell in our lap’ at No. 22 overall in NBA draft
Of course, the real test is whether they are right. Not just about Philon, a dynamic ballhandler and shooter who averaged 22 points per game last season and who some mock drafts had going in the top 15. Gansey and his front office must also be correct in their evaluations of the players they could have drafted instead of Philon. Zuby Ejiofor, Chris Cenac Jr., Joshua Jefferson, to name a few. Each of those three possesses the size that Philon lacks and that a roster like the Sixers’ will eventually need on the wing alongside Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. Each went off the board in the six picks after Philon. Two of them went to Eastern Conference playoff hopefuls (Ejiofor to the Hawks at No. 23, Cenac to the Celtics at No. 27). History will be written by the teams that got it right.
All you need to know about how the Sixers feel about Philon can be derived by the fact that they saw fit to draft him despite the overlap in skill sets with Maxey and Edgecombe and also the player they traded away for the pick they used to draft the Alabama guard. When Daryl Morey dealt Jared McCain to the Thunder with ownership’s approval, the thought was that the 2024 first-round pick’s long-term utility would be capped by his inability to play alongside two other smallish guards. He and Philon are hardly carbon copies of each other. Philon is a little longer in terms of standing reach and wingspan, and he is a quicker, more dynamic playmaker with the ball in his hands. But they both exist in the same general bucket, with the same limitations with regard to Maxey and Edgecombe.
Speaking to reporters after the conclusion of Tuesday’s first round, Gansey and Sixers coach Nick Nurse both spent a lot of time talking about how similar Philon is to Maxey and Edgecombe.
“He’s another fast, kind of exciting guy that kind of plays a lot like Tyrese and VJ,” Nurse said. “It’s another guy with the speed, athleticism, quickness, deep range, some creativity with the ball. He’s a pretty good pick-and-roll player already, probably more advanced than a lot of guys coming out. I think he sees all the pieces of the pick-and-roll..”
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Nurse and Gansey both hemmed and hawed when asked if they envisioned using all three of their young guards on the court at the same time.
“I don’t see a lot of minutes but maybe in certain situations we can,” Gansey said, while also deferring to Nurse.
Nurse sounded equally skeptical.
» READ MORE: First-round pick Labaron Philon Jr. brings ball-handling, shooting ability, and playmaking to the Sixers
“I think it’s a little early to answer that,” he said.
Both downplayed the significance of the question. Games are more than long enough to accommodate three guards playing starter minutes at staggered intervals. Maxey and Edgecombe both finished among the league leaders in playing time last season, perhaps counterproductively so. In a world where both average 32 minutes per game, that would leave another 32 where one or the other is on the bench.
“My mindset is he’s talented,” Nurse said of Philon. “Let’s figure out how we’re going to get him on the floor.”
The Sixers will have a good problem on their hands if Philon ends up good enough to warrant more minutes than are available. It will mean the minutes he does play are valuable. The Knicks won an NBA championship with Jalen Brunson, Miles McBride, and Jose Alvarado. The Spurs had Dylan Harper playing starter minutes off the bench behind De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle. The Thunder had a slew of guards contribute, including the smallish McCain and Cason Wallace.
“You look at our roster, we need help at every position, one through five,” Gansey said. “Obviously, we have the big four and I think he fits. He’s another guard so now we can kind of focus in other areas on the roster.”
However Philon turns out, the pick does offer us a little more evidence on what to expect out of Gansey and this Sixers roster. They didn’t use the No. 22 pick to select a player who might someday help alleviate the roster’s clearest current need (size on the wing). They didn’t trade it for a veteran who might’ve made them better in the short term. They didn’t use it to entice a team to take on Paul George’s contract. They did what a team in their position should be doing. They had an opportunity to draft a player they think will someday belong in a championship caliber rotation, and they availed themselves of that opportunity. That is how it is going to need to be done: piece by piece.
